Michele Bachmann: The Iran embassy gaffe

Rep. Michele Bachmann has rewritten U.S. history (placing Revolutionary War battlefields of Lexington and Concord in New Hampshire) asserted that the Lord desires “submissive wives” and praised carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Bachmann

Now, the Tea Party champion and GOP presidential candidate appears to have mistakenly put a U.S. embassy back in Tehran. The U.S. severed relations with Iran in 1980 during the hostage crisis.

Discussing Britain’s decision to withdraw embassy personnel from Iran, after students assaulted their embassy earlier this week, Bachmann told an Iowa audience:

“That’s exactly what I would do (if I were president). We wouldn’t have an embassy in Iran. I wouldn’t allow that to be there.”

The comment went viral on the Internet. On Thursday, the Bachmann campaign was doing damage control, claiming the congressman knows full well we haven’t has a Tehran embassy in 31 years. The campaign’s explanation:

“She was agreeing with the actions taken by the British to secure their embassy personnel and was speaking in the hypothetical, that if she was President of the United States, and if we had an embassy in Iran, she would have taken the same actions as the British.”

And, in an age-old politician defense, the Bachmann campaign complained that “her remarks are being taken out of context.”